The National Public Health Institute (NPHIL) of Liberia was established in 2016 by an act of legislation, following the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic in 2014. The NPHIL Act distinguishes the institution as a corporate entity with perpetual existence responsible to collaborate with other agencies to improve the health of people by instituting measures to predict, prevent, and respond to disease outbreaks and events of public health significance.
NPHIL is governed by a Board of Directors appointed by the President of the Republic of Liberia with a tenure of three years. The Board is responsible for oversight, resource mobilization and advocacy. The Director General is the chief executive officer who runs the day-to-day affairs of the entity in consultation with the Board and the senior management team. There are two departments, namely: The Department of Technical Services and the Department of Administration. The Deputy Director General for Technical Services (DDGTS) is the lead scientist, head for the Technical Services Department and manages six (6) Divisions. The Deputy Director General for Administration (DDGA) leads the Department of Administration, which comprises five (5) Division. A team of highly skilled and experienced professionals have been recruited and placed to perform the mandates of NPHIL.
With respect to the PANGENS research project, two of the six divisions within the Department of Technical Services of NPHIL are worth highlighting: Division of Public Health and Medical Research (DPHMR) and the Division of Public Health Diagnostics and Laboratory System (National Public Health Reference Laboratory (NPHRL). The Division of Public Health and Medical Research (DPHMR) and NPHRL are housed at the Charlesville campus which is situated on 91 acres of land. Both divisions also share the diagnostic infrastructure and research facilities as well as personnel and expertise. The NPHRL oversees a comprehensive and well-coordinated network of public health laboratory diagnostic systems to enhance one-health surveillance, public health research, and the diagnostics of epidemic-prone diseases. The NPHRL has diagnostics infrastructure for Serology and Molecular & Genomics sequencing for testing priority diseases in Liberia under the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) System and for research. The Multi-Drug Resistant TB (MDR- TB) laboratory is currently being upgraded to Biosafety Level 3. The Molecular laboratory is fully equipped with Real-time PCR, GeneXpert and conventional PCR technology. The lab has trained manpower, has made significant progress and has built its capacity to respond to viral hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola, Lassa fever, Dengue, Marburg etc., and Respiratory illness like Sar CoV2, Human influenza, etc. The NPHRL conducts confirmatory diagnostic testing for measles & rubella, cholera, shigellosis, typhoid fever, meningitis, Buruli ulcer, Mokeypox, and Yellow Fever.
As part of its mandate, the Research Division at NPHIL serves as a center of excellence for conducting and coordinating public health and medical research to inform Liberian public health policies. A serology suite was recently refurbished by NIH for a Phase II randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study of the chimpanzee adenovirus 3 (ChAd3‐EBO Z) ‐based vaccine and the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSVΔG‐ZEBOV) ‐based vaccine. Additionally, Clinical, Immunology, & Virology Follow‐up of Survivors of Ebola Virus Disease is ongoing. Currently, there is training of the staff on the process of running the FANG ELISA. The lab is processing serum samples via the FANG assay and semen samples on the Cepheid GeneXpert. The FANG assay is run on serum samples from survivors and close contacts testing for the presence of anti-Ebola GP antibodies. The GeneXpert is used to detect the presence of Ebola viral RNA. Staff within these divisions are now trained on processing semen samples and running the GeneXpert. They perform all aspects of this process independently.
NPHIL Official Website URL: https://www.nphil.gov.lr/
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